Rail Ka Dibba

Madhubala portrait poster for sale: Rail Ka Dibba (1953).

Featured here is an actual surviving original vintage Bollywood poster of the old 1953 black and white Hindi film produced and directed by Prem Narayan Arora that starred the “Marilyn Monroe of Bollywood” Madhubala opposite the “Elvis Presley of India” Shammi Kapoor in lead roles.

A romantic drama, Rail Ka Dibba (1953) also featured Sajjan, Om Prakash, Jayant, Yasmin, Protima Devi, Ram Avtar and Cuckoo in supporting roles.

Released under the All India Pictures Production banner, Rail Ka Dibba (1953) told the story of four friends who share a home inside an abandoned railway compartment and how their friendship is put to the test when two of them fall in love with each other.

The film was released during the debut year of Shammi Kapoor’s entry in Bollywood and was his second film to be released in the year.

Printed and circulated during the release run of the film in North Indian theaters (somewhere in the late 1950s), this Rail Ka Dibba poster was originally designed for publicity of the film but never ended up being used.

This vintage Bollywood poster was originally designed in hand painted oil on canvas format by a Bollywood poster design studio in Delhi.

A large striking close up portrait of actress Madhubala is seen dominating the right side of this original Bollywood poster. The actress is depicted in her character of a poor orphan, wearing a red bindi on her forehead. Actor Shammi Kapoor, who plays her lover in the film, is seen in an illustration on the left smoking a cigarette while sitting down.

A soothing shade of green is used in the background of this original Madhubala portrait poster. Typography used in this vintage Bollywood poster is primarily in English, with the title translated in both Devanagari Hindi as well as in Urdu at the bottom. The Devanagari Hindi title appears in white at the bottom of this Rail Ka Dibba movie poster, standing out against a striking red background.

The soundtrack album of Rail Ka Dibba (1953) was composed by Ghulam Mohammed, while lyrics were written by Shakeel Badayuni. It featured popular tracks such as “Chham Chhama Chham Payal Baaje” sung by Shamshad Begum and “Bhagwan Teri Duniya Mein Insaan” sung by Asha Bhosle.